1. Field of the Invention
With an emphasis on women's overall health, the invention pertains to improved prevention and treating agents, and methods for preventing and treating, mammary cancer.
2. Description of Related Art
In addressing mammary (breast) cancer, it is important to address a woman's overall health besides just the prevention or treatment of cancer. The ability of peri-menopausal women to treat menopausal symptoms while also decreasing their risk of breast cancer is important in improving quality of life as well as in reducing the risk of other age-related diseases. As hormone replacement therapy is currently recommended only for short-term use for women with severe menopausal and peri-menopausal symptoms, many women struggle through problems including but not limited to hot flushes, vaginal dryness, irritability, and incontinence. Estrogen therapy has been the most effective therapy to date to help with all those symptoms as well as in protecting against osteoporosis.
At the same time, prevention and treatment of breast cancer is important in improving both health and quality of life. Certain treatments which do not fall within the typical bounds of traditional chemotherapy have shown significant promise, such as the oral administration of melatonin. Melatonin was, prior to the present invention, known to exhibit distinctive anti-mammary-cancer effects, and previous studies have shown that enhancing the nocturnal surge in melatonin, by administering melatonin at bedtime or during the night, has been more protective against the development of mammary cancer than supplementing melatonin in a continuous manner. There has been a general consensus in the mammary cancer field, however, that melatonin itself is not an adequate preventive or treatment for mammary cancer, despite its positive effects. Even though other recent strides in breast cancer treatment have been favorably impressive a need still remains for a particular therapy which can both prevent or treat mammary cancer at the same time the treatment reduces or eliminates the symptoms of peri-menopause or menopause, ideally while presenting risks or side effects within the general bounds of those of melatonin. Despite this need, the prevailing wisdom at this writing (not including the present invention) is that treating menopause, and preventing or treating breast cancer, are separate disciplines. However, logically, if there were a safe and effective way of treating menopause and at the same time preventing or treating breast cancer in the same therapeutic regimen, such a therapy would represent a significant—even historic—advance in women's health care.